Who started the silly business of attributing sexes (or neuters) to
nouns and pronouns?

My guess is that it was some civil servant in Ancient Rome who grabbed
at the chance to make himself a job for life.

And how did he/she/it establish the rules that would later determine,
for example, that 'La Guerre' should be feminine?

And did he/she/it decide that a Eunuch should be neuter?

Or did Eunuchs choose to be neutered to comply with the Rules of Grammar?

Dear Bryan,

According to Aristotle, you can blame it all on a Greek named
Protagoras who lived in the fifth century BC. As for how the rules
came about, then that is, I hope, covered in a detailed paper sourced
below: Gender Shifts in the History of English.  If it is not answered
therein to your satisfaction, then do ask for a clarification.

?In the fifth century BC, according to Aristotle's account, Protagoras
first created the labels masculine, feminine, and neuter for Greek
nouns, and langauge scholars have been trying to explain the
relationship of grammatical gender categories to the world around them
ever since.?

The paper appear here published by the Cambridge University Press.
http://assets.cambridge.org/052182/0073/sample/0521820073ws.pdf

It was later published in a book and you can use the search inside
feature on amazon.com (I?m unsure if there is additional information
therein).
Gender Shifts in the History of English (Studies in English Language) 
by Anne Curzan, Merja Kyt
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521820073/102-9332527-0965756?v=glance&n=283155

Language, Words, Grammar and Gender
Humanist Archives

?The response to Gary Stonum's query about the origins of the concept
of gender is that it is indeed the Greeks who were responsible. Of
course he is right about the numerous incongruities between
grammatical and natural gender. But the classification goes back to
the beginnings of grammar, specifically to the 5th century Sophists.
Aristotle (Rhetoric 1407b6) tells us that the famous sophist
Protagoras was the first to classify words by "type" or "kind". The
Greek word is *genos*, hence gender. Protagoras named the kinds male,
female endings, since practice showed variability and inconsistency.
This concern is lampooned by Aristophanes at Clouds 658 ff. Aristotle
later in the Poetics alters the designations to male, female, and
in-between (*ta metaxu*). On the ba in response to the shared endings
between neuter and other genders.
Rendered in Latin, the categories are still in use: masculine,
feminine, and "neither", i.e. neuter. For a succinct but thorough
discussion, including the lack of match between grammatical and
natural gender, see
E. Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik, Bd.1, pp. 28-36.?

Dirk t.D. Held, Classics, Connecticut College.
http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/lists_archive/Humanist/v04/1123.html

You will find some additional information and discussion in this paper.
Gender, grammar and space between.
Suzanne Romaine
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~romaine/gendergrammar.pdf

You may also find these Wikipedia pages on gender and grammatical
gender of interest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender#Etymology_and_usage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder


Useful search strategies

gender etymology nouns
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=gender+etymology+nouns&btnG=Search&meta=
grammatical gender etymology
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=grammatical+gender+etymology&btnG=Search&meta=
Protagoras grammar nouns
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Protagoras+grammar+nouns&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

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Request for Answer Clarification by probonopublico-ga on 24 Mar 2006 11:03 PST

Hi A/F

Not a RAC, merely a big thank you.

It looks great but I won't get chance to read fully until later.

ATB

Bryan

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Clarification of Answer by answerfinder-ga on 25 Mar 2006 05:12 PST

Bryan,
Thank you for the generous tip. Pleased I found the information for
you. It also gave me chance to educate myself - I need it!
answerfinder-ga

Thankee Oh Mighty One

Is it my imagination ....

Or are you getting better and better?

Bryan

Having learned to stumble my way through Spanish and French, I am
amazed that people who speak these languages seem to remember the
gender of nouns so effortlessly. I, on the other hand, have difficulty
in accurately identifying the gender of many human beings these days.

What came through was that the language was already using gender
forms, and Protagoras was apparently the first person to put names on
them.

Yeah, Pink, it is difficult to learn, and I make more mistakes now
than I used to (my wife says).  There are some patterns in German: 
the ending of the noun (but lots of stinky exceptions); verbs used as
a noun and cities are neuter, etc.

As to the attribution:  In English, we learn that French has two
genders, male and female.  Germans, who are accustomed to all three
genders, are (or once were) taught that French also has three genders
(like any self-respecting language), just that the male and neuter are
the same.

OH, German is polite to Eunuchs and considers them masculine:  der Eunuch.

Above, that should have been masculine and feminine rather than male and female.